Sabbatical

(back in a few)


Anchor up; red buoys on the left side; ice in the cooler; Chesapeake is a purple meadow of water; my shoulders touch the brown surface; why not here.

Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta (ahem)

adventures in opera dating


Can someone help this Craigslisting Brooklynite out? He needs a date for the Samson et Dalila at sultry Prospect Park. Sieglinde thought the boy's ad was fine ... till he pulls out the old "Russian dramatic mezzo at the Met" card, which we all know screams "shut-in," "please, I wanna have your baby," or "stalker fan of Denyce Graves." But anyway, let's be real for a second, and look at your situation: (1) the species populating the the Met Grand Tier Promenade at intermission isn't really a promising gene pool, (2) queen can't live by bread and Renée alone, (3) each CD you buy is an hour closer to utter isolation, (4) thighmaster José Cura doesn't come to New York that often (but acknowledging that his videos are such gifts that keep on giving). So creampuff, clock's ticking, can't be too picky these days, girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, so there.

Violetta's Grandmother

Luisa Miller


Jens F. Laurson at ionarts, in a review of a recent Luisa Miller performance at Washington Concert Opera notes: "The opera itself divides opera lovers. Verdi fans will certainly appreciate most of it (and there are glorious moments in it), but the seams of this cobbled-together opera are very noticeable. The drama isn't all too compelling, and there might, after all, be a reason why it is not terribly often performed. If the singing is as good as it was at the Washington Concert Opera, it might be compelling... if the singing were any less than that, I suspect all but the most ardent Verdinites in the audience would be terribly bored by and throughout the third act." The boredom may come at this point only because it takes so long to get to the third act. To me (admittedly a Verdinite-in-training), the music in the third act is reason enough to hang around. The lyric Luisa is the proto-Violetta, the dramatic push around her in Act III anticipating many of the jewels of La Traviata (in particular, the towering Violetta-Germont scene of Act II, and then some of Violetta's slow fade in Act III). I feel Luisa Miller suffers only from a lack of a master's edit, the kind eminent in the Traviata score. But the Verdian tears, hints of the quietness of "Dite alla giovine" and ghosts of "Parigi o cara" are already there (in the Miller-Luisa and Rodolfo-Luisa scenes respectively), brooding, tugging the same old heartstrings.

EDIT [5:01pm]: I didn't mean to be rude and highlight things in what is otherwise a fine, agreeable JFL review of the D.C. Luisa Miller. His post took me to my CD shelves in search of my many Luisas, dusty but patient ladies-in-waiting to my prima Violettas. I devote my Friday afternoon and evening to this neglected Verdi, ever the wanna-be member of the formidable Rigoletto-Trovatore-Traviata trio. Currently playing, Renata Scotto as Luisa (Met, 1979).

Booing Etiquette

(Now, that's opera!)


Will Joe Volpe's last season as Met general manager and high emperor end with some gala curtain call fracas? (You bet Sieglinde's getting front row seats for this one.) From across the ocean, there's new development regarding the controversy over at the fiery cauldron of the English National Opera. Apparently, disgruntled house employees are enough to cause a major scene at curtain calls to shame an outgoing leader. The perp has now apologized. Well, Sieglinde's not saying she knows of similarly disgruntled rank-and-files at the Met, but let's just say that even John Paul II (soon to be Saint) had his boo'ers from within his own cult clergy. And we're not even speaking about private citizens with opinions. It shall be a wild gala (worthy of smuggling camcorders in, I tell you).

Opera boss boos colleague on stage [AP]
ENO chief follows up boos with apology [Guardian]

In other ENO news, guess what David Pountney, ENO elder, is referring to in this quote: "_____ (is/are) a celluloid condom inserted between the audience and the immediate gratification of understanding." (The English are so proper!) Is it:
(a) Mr. & Mrs. Smith (starring Savior of Africa Brad Pitt)
(b) The Fellowship of the Sith at Azkaban
(c) Trojan's new celluloid condoms (ultra-sensitive, now comes in petite-- a hit in London, apparently)
(d) Renée Fleming's new CD Haunted Heart (a.k.a. "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better")
(e) Deep Throat, the Sequel (starring Sieglinde Lovelace)

Get answer here. (And learn about bomb threats from director Graham Vick, known worldwide as premier expert on bombs.)